Karoline Leavitt squirms in grilling over Trump-Epstein emails - 'It's a hoax!'

Karoline Leavitt (Image: Sky News)

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt branded the allegations about Donald Trump as a "hoax" as new emails suggest the US President knew about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.

The tense White House press conference comes after emails were released on Wednesday, in which Epstein says Trump "knew about the girls" and describes him as the "dog that hasn’t barked."

President Trump has always denied any wrongdoing.

The messages were released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, and are likely to pile even more pressure on President Trump over his relationship with Epstein.

An exchange from 2011 was released today, showing Epstein's messages with co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in April 2011.

Epstein alleges that Mr Trump was in the presence of one of Epstein's sex-trafficking victims for hours.

Epstein said: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [victim name redacted] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned.".

Maxwell replied: “I have been thinking about that.”

Karoline Leavitt branded the allegations a 'manufactured hoax' (Image: Sky News )

Ms Leavitt was put on the spot and asked the following question by a reporter: "Separate as to why you think the emails were made public can you address their substance. Did the President ever spend hours at Jeffrey Epstein’s house with a victim?"

To which Ms Leavitt replied: "These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.

"And what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member of Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because he was a paedophile and a creep."

Another reporter then asked the Press Secretary: "In the interest of full transparency why not just release the full files about Epstein and get this all over with.

Hitting back Ms Leavitt said: "This administration has done more with respect in regards to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein then any administration ever."

She added: “It just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party. Now they are talking about it all of a sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office but when Joe Biden was sitting in there the Democrats never brought this up.

“This wasn’t an issue they cared about because they actually don’t care about the victims in these cases. They care about trying to score political points against President Trump as we have seen in this Government shutdown."

The messages released today largely predate his time as US President, with Mr Trump entering the White House for the first time in January 2017 following his November 2016 elections.

The White House swiftly dismissed the emails as a "fake narrative" pushed by Democrats ahead of a high-stakes House vote on full file release, with Republicans accusing the opposition of redacting names to smear the incoming administration.